Combined heating and cooling system



y 1936- s. M. ANDERSON Y 2,041,039

COMBINED HEATING AND COOL ING SYSTEM Filed Jan. 51, 1954 2 Shets-Sheet 1INVENTOR, SAMUEL M. ANDERSON,

M, QM 1W.

ATTORNEYS.

y 19, 1936- s. M. ANDERSON COMBINED HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEM FiledJan. 31, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

SAMUEL MA/vosleso/v, BY

A TTORNEYS.

Patented May 19, 1936 v COMBINED HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEM Samuel M.Anderson, Sharon, Mass., assignor to B. F. Sturtevant Company, Inc.,Boston, Mass.

Application January 31, 1934, Serial No. 709,118

Claims.

This invention relates to tlie conditioning of air for passengervehicles-and relates more particularly to the conditioning of aircirculated through railway cars.

5 It is now becoming well known that human comfort requires that the airwithin an enclosure should be not only circulated to provide sufiicient'ventilation, but should in winter be warmed, with moisture added tomaintain the proper relative 1n humidity and in summer should be cooled,and

moisture extracted from it to overcome the excessive humidity which isusually present. While the conditioning of air for motion picturetheaters, hotel, office and industrial buildings has been developed to ahigh degree in recent years, the air conditioning of vehicles, andpartic'ularly' railway cars, has been more or less neglected, due,perhaps, to the peculiar problems involved and the many diflicultiespresent. Among the difficulties which present themselves are the lack ofspace in a railway car which already of necessity has had to accommodatethe maximum of equipment in the minimum of space, the excessiverefrigeration equipment which would have to be carried if the ordinarymethod of conditioning buildings were followed, the changing temperatureconditions through which a railway car must pass, the cost of theequipment, and other difiiculties. I

According to a feature of this invention, an air conditioning system inwhich the conditioned air is distributed without ducts is provided. Theair conditioning chamber is mounted in the center of the car, or otherspace being served, and the conditioned air is discharged towards eachend of the car from the center. The air is discharged from the chamberin two loop circuits, overhead the passenger space. The air passesdownalong one side of the car and overhead the passenger space andisreturned to the chamber down along the other side of the car andoverhead the passenger space from each of the 'two sides of the chamber,the chamber thus serving to supply air without ducts from a centrallocation to the two halves of the cat. J

is drawn into the chamber, filtered, temperature conditioned, anddischarged. In summer, the air is cooled and dehumidified, and, inwinter, the air is heated and humidified.

According to another feature of the invention, the air conditioningchamber has all the necessary apparatus assembled within it as aninsulated unit which may be easily bolted to the car roof without anymaterial or substantial change 55 of the car structure.

Outside and recirculated air According to another feature of theinvention, the air conditioning chamber is provided with filters whichmay be easily inserted and removed from the under side of the chamber.

According to another feature of the invention, 6 the compartment issupplied with cold water from the ice cooling system and pre-coolingcoils are provided in the path of mixed outside and recirculated air,the warmest ice water being fed through the pre-cooling coils whichextract all of the heat possible from the air being conditioned.

According to another feature of the invention, both heating and coolingcoils are provided in a single air conditioning compartment and theheating coils are provided on the discharge side of the cooling coils.

According to another feature of the invention, the fan passing the airthrough the air conditioning chamber is provided with ball bearingswhich are mounted on rubber so that the noise originating in thebearings is completely absorbed .at the point of origin.

An object of this invention is to supply conditioned air from acentrally located air condition-' ing unit without air distributionducts.

Another object of the invention is to provide air conditioning apparatusin a compact insulated compartment which can be easily mounted in thespace to be servedfi Another object of the invention is to provide precooling coils in an ice cooling system in the path of the mixedrecirculated and outside air to be conditioned.

Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the followingdescription taken withthe drawings. 4

The invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, ofwhich:-

Fig. 1 is a side view of a railway car equipped according to the presentinvention; 40

Fig. 2 is a plan view, with top removed, of the car and apparatus ofFig; 1;

Fig. 3 is a view looking into the car ,of Figs. 1 and 2 from one end,with end removed;

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view showing a me"- 45 chanical refrigerationsystem for cooling the air; Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view showing an icecooling system for cooling the air; Fig. 6 is a sectional plan viewshowing the apparatus in an air conditioning chamber of this invention,and Fig. Us a side sectional view of thecompartment shown by Fig. 6.-The air conditioning compartment shown by Fig. 6 comprises aninsulating casing III which exthe belt I1, the outside air inlets IS,the filters l9 mounted within the inlets l8 on the inside of thecompartment, the recirculated air inlets 20, and the discharge outlets2|.

The cooling compartment is thus seen to have tworecirculated air inletsand two discharge outlets. The compartment is divided into two units bythe partition 22 so that the air drawn in by one of the fans 15 entersthrough one of the outside air inlets l8, one of the recirculated airinlets 20, passes first overone of the precooling coils l2,

then. over half of the cooling coils ll, then over the steam coil l3,and out one of the discharge outlets 2!. It is seen that two completeunits, each serving half of the car-with conditioned air, are providedin a single compact and eflicient compartment requiring a minimum ofapparatus due to the fact that much of the apparatus is common to thetwo units.

The air is discharged, as shown by Figs. 1 and 2, overhead the passengerspace and down along one side of the car and is returned overhead'thepassenger space and down along the other side of the car. It has beenfound that this arrangement is particularly suitable for the supply ofcold and dehumidified air in hot weather. In order to dehumidify the airsufliciently, it is usually necessary to cool it to a very low dewpoint, at which the temperature of the cold air is too low for comfort.But, with the present arrangement, this highly cooled air does not enterdirectly the area occupied by passengers. Air is circulated completelyabove the passenger space and, by the action of gravity, the cold airgradually diffuses down from the level at whichit is discharged from thecooling compartment, and, before entering the area occupied bypassengers, contacts,

intimately with the warm air above the passenger space and so hassufficient superheat added to it that by the time the conditioned airreaches the passengers it has a temperature which is not too cold forcomfort. The necessary cooling effect maybe supplied by a mechanicalrefrigeration system, such as shown by Fig. 4, as where a compressor 23compresses any suitable refrigerant such, for example, as freon, whichthen passes through the condenser coils 24, which may be cooled in thecooling tower arrangement illustrated, the refrigerant then passingthrough the expansion valve 25 to expand in the cooling coils I i.

Alternatively, an ice cooling system may be used such as thatillustrated by Fig. 5. In this case,

ice water is circulated through the cooling coils.

II by the pump 25a, the returned water being sprayed through the spraynozzles 26 on the ice surface so as to remove, by the melting of theice, the heat units in the water. In order to prevent the excess watercaused by the melting of the ice from being discharged to the tracks attoo low a temperature, a portion of the relatively warm water leavingthe cooling coils I l is passed at the junction point 28 (Fig. 6)through the two precooling coils l2, one of which is mounted in each ofthe two air conditioning units included within the cooling compartmentIll. The amount of water passing through the pre-cooling coils I2 ispreferably equal to that which would ordinarily be excess water, causedby the melting of the ice,

the path of the mixed outside and recirculated air are that less poweris required to move the air over the coils to obtain the same heattransfer. Usually the larger part of the conditioned air is recirculatedair, while a minor portion is outside air. To obtain sumcient heattransfer from a pre-cooler used to cool the small volume of outside airrequires more surface in a smaller area with higher resistance thanwhere the pre-cooler is mounted in the path of the mixed air, where, dueto the larger volume, less surface is required. Also from the designengineering standpoint, it is preferable that all of the heat exchangesurfaces be arranged within the main cooling compartment where morespace is available. I

In winter operation, steam from the ordinary steam source is passedthrough the steam coils I3 and the humidifiers M. In the past, ithasbeen the practice, where separate heat exchange surfaces were providedfor heating and for cooling, to place the heating coils between the airintake and the cooling coils. It has been found, however that when theheated air is passed over coils formerly used for cooling, unpleasantodors where introduced into the passenger space, this believed to be dueto the presence of vegetable organisms deposited on the surfaces of thecooling coils by the precipitation of moisture during dehumidification,the heating of these organisms causing unpleasant odors. By placingtheheating coils after the cooling coils, any organisms or coatings on thesurfaces of the cooling coils are not heated and the unpleasant odorsare avoided.

The filters l9, which are mounted in the fresh air inlets I 8, justwithin the compartment ill, may

be easily removed or inserted into place from the under side of thecompartment.

The bearings 30, which support the rotors of the fans ii, are rollerbearings and are mounted, as shown by Fig. 7, on the rubber mountings3!. It has been found that these mountings absorb the noise and anyother vibration resulting from the roller bearings. '3

As shown by Fig. 1, the refrigeration apparatus, whether it be ofmechanical type, as shown by Fig. 4, or of the ice type, as shown byFig. 5, may be mounted in a compact unit 40, bolted on the under side ofthe car, and the air conditioning compartment III is a compact unitwhich may be mounted without any substantial alteration of the car roof.With the refrigeration unit and air conditioning compartment in place,only a slight amount of installation work .is required to provide thenecessary electric wiring for energizing the fan, pump and compressormotors from the car storage battery and/or from an axle drivengenerator, and to provide the necessary piping between the refrigerationunit and the air conditioning unit.

Whereas the invention has been described in connection with theconditioning of air supplied to passengers within a railway car,itshould be understood that the invention is also applicable should beunderstood that the invention is not limited to the details described,since many modiflcations may be made by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. Air conditioning apparatus for a passenger vehicle, comprising aconditioning compartment located substantially in the center'of thevehicle and in the roof zone thereof, completely above the usefulpassenger space, means in said compartment for cooling the air passingtherethrough, and means for passing air through one side of saidcompartment where it is cooled and down along one side of, the vehicleabove the passenger space, and for returning the air through the otherside of said compartment where it is again cooled and then down alongthe other side of the vehicle and above the passenger space.

2. Air conditioning apparatus for a passenger vehicle, comprising aconditioning compartment located substantially in the center of thevehicle and in the roof zone thereof, completely above the usefulpassenger space, means in said compartment for alternatively heating orcooling the air as desired, and means for passing air through one sideof said compartment where it is cooled and down along one side of thevehicle above the passenger space, and for returning the air through theother side of said compartment where it is again cooled and then downalong the other side of the vehicle and above the passenger space.

3. The gnethod of conditioning air, which comprises locating aconditioning unit substantially in the center of and overhead the spaceto be served, conditioning air in said unit, discharging conditioned airfrom one side of said unit down along one side of and overhead the spaceto be served, returning recirculated air to said one side of said unitdown along the other side and overhead the space to be served,discharging conditioned air from the opposite side of said unit downalong one side of and overhead the space to be served, and returningrecirculated air to said opposite side of said unit down along the otherside of and above the space to be served.

4. Air conditioning apparatus for a passenger vehicle, comprising aconditioning compartment located substantially in the center of thevehicle and in the roof zone thereof, completely above the usefulpassenger space, means in said compartment for conditioning the airpassing therethrough, a recirculated air inlet in said compartment andlocated adjacent one longitudinal side of said vehicle, a. dischargeoutlet in said compartment and located adjacent theother longitudinalside of said vehicle, a? second recirculated air inlet in saidcompartment and located adjacent said other longitudinal side oi! saidvehicle, a discharge outlet in said compartment and located to the otherside of the center of the vehicle from that occupied by said secondrecirculated air inlet, and means for drawing air in through saidinlets, passing it in through said compartmen and passing it out throughsaid outlets.

5. Heat exchange apparatus for a railway passenger car comprising an airconditioning unit mounted in the roof zone of. and substantially midwaybetween the two ends of said car, a; plurality'of heat exchange coilsextending crosswise said unit and in contact with the air passingtherethrough, a longitudinal partition dividing said unit into twocompartments and said coils into two sections, a discharge outlet in oneof ranged at the other end of said unit from the outlet thereof andcommunicating with the passenger space of said car, a blower in eachv ofsaid compartments, and a motor in one of said compartments for rotatingsaid blowers, said blowers indrawing recirculated air from the passengerspace in opposite directions through said inlets and dischargingconditioned air into the passenger space in opposite directions fromsaid outlets.

6. Heat exchange apparatus for a railway passenger car comprising an airconditioning unit mounted in the root zone of and substantially midwaybetween the two ends of said car, a plurality of heat exchange coilsextending crosswise said unit and in contact with the air passingtherethrough, a longitudinal partition dividing said unit into twocompartments and saidlcoils into two sections, a discharge outlet in oneof said compartments at one end of said unit, a discharge outlet in theother of said compartments at the other end of said unit, a recirculatedair inlet in each of said compartments arranged at the other end of saidunit from the outlet thereof and communicating with the passenger spaceof said car, and means for indrawing air into said compartments, throughsaid inlets, and disnatively heating or cooling the air passingtherethrough, a discharge outlet in one of said compartments at one endof said unit, a discharge outlet in the other of said compartments atthe other end of said unit, a recirculated air inlet in each of saidcompartments arranged at the other end of said unit from the outletthereof and communicating with the passenger space of said car, andmeans for indrawing air into said compartments, through said inlets, anddischarging it from said outlets, said unit indrawing decirculated airfrom the passenger space in opposite directions through said inlets anddischarging conditioned air into the passenger space in oppositedirections through said outlets.

8. Heat exchange apparatus for a railway passenger car, comprising anair conditioning unit located substantially in the center-and in therooi zone of said car, a partition dividing said unit into twocompartments, means in each of.v said compartments for alternativelyheating or cooling the air passing therethrough, a discharge outlet inone of said compartments, at one end t said unit and adjacent onelongitudinal side of said car, a discharge outlet in the other ofinlets, and discharging it from said outlets, said .unit indrawingrecirculated air in opposte direc-.

tions through said inlets and discharging con- -ditioned air in oppositedirections through said outlets.

9. Heat exchange apparatus fora railway passenger car, comprising an airconditioning unit mounted in the roof zone of said car, extended surfaceheating coils in said compartment adapted to receive a heating medium, ahumidifier in said compartment for moistening the heated air, extendedsurface cooling cdils in said compart ment adapted to receive arefrigerant, a discharge outlet at one end of said unit and adjacent oneof the longitudinal sides of said car, a recirculated air inlet at saidend of said unit and adjacent the other longitudinal side of said car.and means for discharging conditioned air from said unit through saioutlet in an unconfined stream down along one ide of said car andoverhead the space being served, and for indrawing said conditioned airas recirculated'air in an unconfined stream down along the other side oithe car for discharging a portion of the conditioned air,

from one end of said compartment down along one longitudinal side orsaid car and overheadthe passenger space thereof to serve the passengerspace of one half of the car, and means for discharging the remainder ofthe conditioned air from the other end of said unit down along the otherlongitudinal side of said car and overhead the passenger space thereofto serve the passenger space in the other half of said car.

SAMUEL M. ANDERSON.

